And he’s smart enough not to bet against them – at least not when he’s playing on their golf course.

Some of the big-money crowd in the former British colony saw what a cautious side of Trump, more pussycat than tiger.

It was Hong Kong Chinese investors who bailed him out when his Riverside South project on Manhattan’s West Side ran into trouble in the early 1990s.

Trump came to Hong Kong looking for deep-pocketed investors. He found them, in the form of a group led by Henry Cheng, of the New World group. Ed Gargan profiled Henry Cheng and his family at the time of the deal. Cheng is one of Hong Kong’s leading developers and the second-generation head of one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families.

When I was reporting a story on New World’s property push into China I spent a fair amount of time talking to people in and around the group that invested with Trump. A number of other notable Hong Kong names were involved. The deal was a sign that the global tectonic plates were shifting, with Asia’s big developers in a position to take big bets on U.S. real estate.

One story that came up repeatedly during my reporting was how the Hong Kong investors entertained Trump on the golf course when he came to Hong Kong. Trump was keen to play. He’s a competitive guy and eagerly accepted the idea that they bet. The Hong Kong crowd plays for high stakes.

The Hong Kong crowd told Trump that they wanted to play for $1 million a hole.

Trump declined.

He was in Hong Kong to raise money, not lose it. One million dollars a hole was a price too rich to play.

When Trump’s Hong Kong investors sold the bulk of the project more than a decade later, they pulled in $1.8 billion, in what was billed as the largest residential real estate transaction in New York City history.

Trump sued his Chinese partners, claiming that they had ignored higher bids and that they had evaded taxes. This seemed, as the New York Times put it, like “sour grapes.” But in 2009 Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau indicted some of those involved in the deal, alleging tax evasion.

So Trump’s claims to “know China” have been learned on the links and in lawsuits, a telling combination.